Terrestrial Energy IMSR Technology the Focus of U.S. Department of Energy Clean Energy Award

Source: | · TERRESTRIAL ENERGY · | August 21, 2024

Terrestrial Energy’s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) Generation-IV nuclear technology is the subject of a new funding award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions. This office is responsible for advancing market readiness of clean energy technologies needed for a sustainable future and a decarbonized economy.

This award is the most recent of four awards made by DOE to researchers at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), recognizing their many decades of experience in nuclear energy technology. ANL, based near Chicago, has foundational expertise in this field and advances the United States’ nationwide goal of achieving lower energy costs and net-zero emissions by 2050. The DOE Technology Commercialization Fund program funded the awards.

The award is granted to ANL’s Principal Nuclear Engineer, Thanh Hua, who will work in partnership with Terrestrial Energy on “Advanced System Analysis Code Assessment and Enhancement to Support the Integral Molten Salt Reactor Design and Licensing.” The work advances reactor modeling and code development, which is important to the company’s design processes as well as to NRC licensing for IMSR plant operation.

Terrestrial Energy’s IMSR plant uses molten salt reactor technology, researched over many decades and demonstrated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in one of the most successful reactor demonstrations to date. With enhancements and patented innovations to this technology, the IMSR delivers a low-cost nuclear plant capable of clean firm cogeneration – the ability to deliver a customizable combination of zero-carbon electricity and high-temperature thermal energy 24/7 for industrial processes from a site near or co-located with industrial demand.